Why Video Is Crucial to Your Marketing Automation Strategy

Video is on the rise. In fact, video will account for nearly 80% of all internet traffic by 2018, according to Cisco.

But it’s not just consumption patterns that are on the up and up. Video is also driving some serious business results.

Just consider these high-performing video stats:

Emails with videos see 2-3x higher click-through rates

Landing pages with videos drive 80% more conversions

Leads who watch videos as part of their journey to close cost an average of 20% less

The days of video as solely a top-of-funnel, dare we say “fluffy” asset, have passed. With the intense focus on guiding buyers through the purchase process with valuable content and targeted nurture streams, as well as the development of video-based technology, marketing with video is a whole new ball game.

And that’s why, over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a phenomenal shift in the way marketers are using video.

How Video Creates Stronger Demand Gen Programs

Video is one of your strongest marketing and demand gen assets. Not only can video help you generate leads directly with the help of email gates, pop-out CTA, and in-video forms, it can also be used to measure buyer interest and tailor content journeys accordingly. Just like you’d do with any other piece of content, your marketing automation platform is a key piece of the puzzle here to map content to the lead profile.

But chances are, you’re not using video in your marketing automation platform to help you better understand your leads.

And you’re not alone.

In a recent Demand Metric study, nearly 70% of respondents agreed that video engagement data is effective as a lead quality or business opportunity indicator, but only 9% of companies have actually integrated video viewing data with their CRM or marketing automation systems and are actively exploiting that data. 9%!!

If video is so much more than a top-of-funnel, brand awareness medium, then why aren’t marketers looking beyond video views and diving deeper into viewing behavior and influenced pipeline?

Picture this: a prospective buyer comes to your site and watches 10 videos on one page and then leaves. Would you know? Would he be ranked as a highly qualified prospect? He certainly should be, as the consumption of your video content is just as strong an indicator of buyer intent as any other type of content consumption. In fact, according to Unruly, the enjoyment of a video increases purchase intent by 97%!

And due to video’s linear nature, it’s actually easier to measure viewers’ engagement with these assets than many text-based content assets. In other words, where you can only tell if a prospective buyer downloads or doesn’t download your whitepaper, you can see in-depth consumption metrics for your videos, like what parts of a video she’s watched, re-watched, or skipped altogether.

With this viewing data in hand, marketers can feed their lead scoring and nurture programs to better qualify leads and nurture them for sales. If Julie watched one video while Jackson watched six, you’d likely score Jackson higher. And if Jackson only watched 10% of the Product A feature video but 95% of the Product B feature video, you better bet you’d be sending him more information on Product B!

How to Make the Most of Video in Your Marketing Automation Platform

Vidyard and Marketo partnered to produce an ebook on making the most of video in marketing automation. Download it now to learn: